Getting Started with Facebook

Getting Started with Facebook

written by: Jade Jensen

Ah…social media. We all have some sort of love/hate relationship with some form of social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. You get the point. It has been said before (and you will hear it again), but if you’re a business you need social media. It’s the easiest form of marketing and completely free (unless you choose to pay for ads). While you might think social media is a breeze, it can be more challenging than you think. I always feel like I’m learning more and more about social media everyday, especially when there is the release of latest update on Facebook.

The purpose of this post is to give you some insight on how to get started with Facebook. For those of you who already have a Facebook business page and are familiar with the ins and outs of Facebook, this blog post might seem repetitive, but who knows? Maybe you will learn something new!

Let’s Begin

Where do you start? Log into your Facebook. If you don’t have a Facebook account, you’re going to need one.

Once you’re logged in, you want to go to the column on the left hand side (on the home page) and click “pages” under the explore section. At the top right corner of the page you’re directed to, there is a green button you can click to “Create Page.”

At this point, you need to select the image that best represents you. Each one will have you fill out different information about your business, but will ask similar information.

**Important Note: When you put the name of your business, address, categories, etc. you should always remain consistent with this information on every social media platform you use. Why? It helps build up your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

After you have everything filled out, you officially have your own Facebook page for your business! Now you want to begin to pick out your profile picture.

Picking a Profile Picture & Cover Photo

Your profile picture should represent your business. In most situations, this would be your business logo. If you don’t have a logo, I would highly encourage you to pay someone to create you one or build your own if you have some design skill. If you are the business (like a consultant), I would recommend using a professional photo of yourself.

When it comes to choosing the right cover photo, you have several choices. However, keep in mind that if a person clicks on your page, the first thing they will see is that cover photo so it has to be amazing while representing your business. If your business is a shoe store, it wouldn’t make sense to have a photo of leaves or flowers, unless of course it’s a creative image with a pair of shoes surrounded by flowers. You get the point. Somehow your cover photo has the capture the essence of your brand or who you are as a company. For Appsky, we have a video that talks about what we provide to clients and shows our values. If you have the resources, a quality video could work as well!

Creating Goals

You shouldn’t create social media accounts because everyone else says “You need to create a social media account.” Each type of social media is used for a purpose. If you can’t think of a strong reason for having a Facebook account–don’t. Understand where your market is, or who you are trying to reach on social media. Facebook is probably the most diverse when it comes to different audiences, so in most cases you should have a Facebook page for your business. When it comes to Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat that can completely vary (but we will get into that in other blog posts).

For most people, Facebook is a great way to get your name out there and make customers aware of deals/promotions/opportunities happening at your business. It’s informative and interesting!

One of my favorite social media accounts to follow, believe it or not, is the Chick-fil A 76th and Dodge Facebook Page. Why? Its Facebook page has a strong community presence and is always informative of upcoming events and deals at the restaurant. It’s rare for me to follow a restaurant or fast food place on social media, but this one has impressed me time and time again. I especially love it when they had “Free Mystery Breakfast Tuesdays” during the summer. It was a great way to get me, a customer, to go to Chick-fil-a once a week and half the time I would end up buying more food.

We like to use our Facebook account for various reasons, however one of our primary goals is to drive traffic to our website! Many business pages are used for this same purpose. You can’t necessarily “sell” your products/services as well on Facebook as you could on your website.

What Should You Post

It doesn’t make sense to post about things that don’t relate to your business in one way or another. And yes, holidays can relate to your business if your audience can relate to it! Just think about who you are trying to reach and what interests that audience.

Let’s say you’re an artist. How can you leverage Facebook to reach the community of people who are passionate about art? Post about industry news, local artist events, images of your work (especially on Instagram), show images/videos of your involvement within the art community, etc. There is so much you can do! Not sure where to start? Need some inspiration? Check out this Forbes article: 100 Killer Ideas For Your Social Media Content.

I would recommend creating a strategy on what you post. And if you decide you want to post something similar each week, try to be consistent. We post out blog posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. It’s consistent and people will begin to expect it when you have a regular following!

In Conclusion

I could spend hours showing you the ins and outs of Facebook. Unfortunately there is much more that goes into Facebook than can fit into a single blog post! Hopefully some of these tips helped for those who don’t have much experience with a Facebook business page.